


Dandelion

by fresne



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers for Star Trek into Darkness!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-20
Updated: 2013-05-20
Packaged: 2017-12-12 09:11:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/809868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fresne/pseuds/fresne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His first memory of the world outside the facility was of a dandelion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dandelion

**Author's Note:**

> The following inspiration for this work and inspiration for my dialogue, where I am not directly quoting, because apt quotes are cool:  
> conceptual spoilers for the 2nd Reboot movie, "Star Trek: Into Darkness".

His first memory of the world outside the facility was of a dandelion. He remembered the outdoor obstacle course with perfect clarity. Was the of course necessary in that description? He would suppose for unaugmented minds it would be.

He was better than those unaugmented. They were un. He was not. He remembered everything.

The obstacle course itself was child's play. He had been decanted three months previous. He would suppose that made him a child. An infant even. He'd scaled the collapsing wall. He'd jumped over the fire pit. He'd somersaulted through the swinging blades. He'd stood in front of the mine field full of dandelion flowers and paused. He was well within his time. He had time. There was enough time.

He picked a single dandelion puff. At the gust of his hot breath, the seeds caught and floated. In that moment, all the facts about dandelions were available to him. The Latin names and variations. The nutritional value of the roots and leaves and flower. In that moment, what he thought from those facts was that a dandelion was a weed, ceaselessly uprooted from where it was found. No one created it to be this effective and yet it was so.

He completed the course before the first seed met the earth. All this had taken less time than it took to blink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His first lesson worth learning came not from one of the scientists who made him, but from his brother Khan from a previous bio-group. His brother took him through the crawl spaces that they'd learned to navigate as a matter of course. He took him to one of the facilities upper levels where the scientists engineered diseases that could wipe out the majority of the current population.

His brother put a drop of his blood in ten different specimens. They watched through a microscope as the white soldiers of their blood cells attacked and destroyed what their creators had made. 

That their creators had made their blood too was irrelevant. He took his own blood sample and repeated the experiment. The annihilation was total. His brother said, "We are the inheritors of the Earth."

Three days later, his brother Khan and his creche were removed. The genetic material of their entire bio-group was incinerated as defective. 

Within an hour, he had hacked into the files. There was a postscript to the order that read, "Unfortunately, it would seem superior ability breeds superior ambition."

He sent the signal that called a quorum of his brother and sister Khans that night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were not all Khans. They had not all taken that title. Not everyone was suited to be Khan.

Each of them had a forty-two character alphanumeric designation, which were shortened to two digit values by their instructors.

Those that took the title Khan did so deliberately as a designation of their objectives.

It was the title of the single most effective ruler in human history. It was said that a virgin with a bag of gold could ride from one end of the Great Khan's empire to the other without rape or theft. Virginity was an odd concept. Bodies were transport. The first use of that transport was poor at best. Gold was primarily interesting for its industrial use.

Their meeting was much like the night when the leaders of each creche took their title. 

On that night, Khan (the eldest and cleverest and best) had stolen a copy of "Spartacus" from Doctor Greene's locker. For all that they all had perfect recall, they wore out the tape.

They were all Khan for purposes of the subtle significance of that unknown reference. They decided to be rulers then and not the slaves crucified on the Appian Way. They were all each of the equals in their superiority.

They took other names too. Differentiation beyond coloration required it. 

His sister Mulan took a name from a quasi historically referenced animated movie about a girl, who bloomed in adversity. His brother Zulu took the name as a reference to the end of the Alphabet and the ethnic grouping. His brother Noonien Singh smiled and threw a dart at their board of stolen clippings. He said, "I and I alone will be the one to make my name famous."

He considered taking a name from a book. It was the first book that he stolen as his own. The right of passage for all of them. He'd done it before his eyes had yet to focus on printed pages rather than the brain stim learning of the creche. It was the name of a fictional genius, who was so hated by his creator that this creator threw his brilliant creation off a cliff. But he was so beloved that he came back from the dead. 

He was never that beloved.

He decided to wait for the name that would call to him. 

That night, they met in the interstitial space between the genetics labs where new creches were decanted and the forty foot filing cabinets. His contribution was a vial of disease with which to kill their creators. His sister Khan laid out a map with which to divide the world.

He went forth to find his name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
He knew the moment that he saw it what the symbol of his empire would be. It was a red dragon emblazoned on a shield. A mythological creature on an anachronistic tool of war.

He took it from the wall of the store embedded in the highway so these dull travelers would not have to get off. A dingy looking man with clear signs carcinoma on his left cheek attempted to stop him. After he had killed him, he stood over the body. The blood spilling out appeared different than in the exercises he and his fellow augments had done hunting criminals in the forest. He identified the difference. The man was not wearing a tracking collar.

If not counting his creators, which it was somewhat difficult to do so under the circumstances, this was the first individual that he had killed of his own volition. He said to his sister, "We are better in every way." 

She dropped the poorly balanced axe in her hand and smiled.

His symbol became his name. The blood red color of the dragon reminded him that he was better. It was not difficult.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was not accounted the greatest of the tyrants. He waged war from his tiny island in far northern cold seas. He killed a great many people. This was not because those were lesser beings (they were but that was not the point).

A small population, no matter how superior, could not rule a much larger one unless they obfuscated the inherent truth that the many can always overwhelm the few. 

That in the end they were so overwhelmed was the inevitability of the Lilliputians.

As the last city of even the most beloved of ruler princes fell, he remembered the dandelion. He remembered the bacteria. He designed the weapon that destroyed the city from which they launched. He designed the ships and sent the signal to gather any who would come. Noonien Singh named his ship the "Botany Bay". In exile, references were now good enough for him.

Mulan named her ship "Most Gracious Silence". Zulu named his ship "New Dawn on a New World Far Away from This Mud Hole." There were other names. Other languages. Other ideas.

He left his ship nameless. They would find their name when it was right.

They cast themselves into space and sleep. As the cryo chamber did what cryo chambers will, he wondered if they were the dandelions or the bacteria. As consciousness fell, he supposed he'd know if he woke.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were the bacteria. Slaves in petri dishes. Incubators of war. He faced a dandelion while he sought to avenge his family. Clever dandelion. He considered that long ago story with its hero, who survived and the doctor, who mourned him.

He was never that beloved.

In the end, he was not killed but frozen for another day. Another day. Another chance. As his second sleep took him, he smiled and considered seeds in space.

**Author's Note:**

> I figure if one ship could escape, in that chaotic era, why not many? Which is to say canon says there was one ship, but cannon also says 32, 35, and 37 million people died in the Eugenics wars. So... if 80+ escapees, why not a few more ships. Allowing then for Khan and Khan and Khan. 
> 
> Largely a story thrown together because I wanted to write a BBC Sherlock fusion and ended up writing this instead.
> 
> If after reading my fiction here, you would like to read more about me and my writing check out my profile.


End file.
